The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief John Odigie Oyegun, on Wednesday said he ignored several attempts by some stakeholders of the party to compel presidential aspirants to submit to consensus arrangement in choosing the presidential candidate.

Oyegun, who bared his mind while receiving the interim report of the presidential convention committee from its Chairman, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, said he rather chose to allow the aspirants to go ahead and slug it out in a competitive transparent primary election.

“So many efforts were made to get me to call the aspirants together and arm twist them into stepping down for each other and I resisted it and said, no, we are going to organise a transparent convention so that whoever looses will have no excuse in the world,” he said.

On why he supported the primary election as against the consensus process, Oyegun said he wanted the party to showcase one of the best presidential primaries in the history of the country.

He described the organisation of the convention as very outstanding that once the party is able build on the momentum that has been reached, victory will be within the reach of the party.

He added that since the party is a proponent of change it was important that the party.

“The success of the convention has propelled the party. We are proponent of change and if was necessary that one of our major activity should convey to the world what we mean by change.”

Addressing the committee, Oyegun said:  “I entrusted that mission to you and your team you have organised what will go into history in this nation, in our political space and beyond as clearly the freest and fairest presidential primary that has ever been witnessed in this nation.”

He said the party would review the voting process at primary and accreditation which were very tedious.

Speaking while laying the report of the APC Convention, Fayemi said although the exercise was not totally smooth- sailing largely hitch-free.

He expressed the hope that the process that led to the selection of the presidential candidate and his running mate would be the one that will eventually propel the party to electoral victory at the 2015 polls.

Oyegun said the committee was able to nip in the bud some issues that led to speculations which would have created problems.

According to him, no single aspirant has complained about the primary, adding that they have written the committee to express their commendation.

Fayemi said the committee has run into deficit but that believed the party would find a way of dealing with it.

The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief John Odigie Oyegun, on Wednesday said he ignored several attempts by some stakeholders of the party to compel presidential aspirants to submit to consensus arrangement in choosing the presidential candidate.

Oyegun, who bared his mind while receiving the interim report of the presidential convention committee from its Chairman, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, said he rather chose to allow the aspirants to go ahead and slug it out in a competitive transparent primary election.

“So many efforts were made to get me to call the aspirants together and arm twist them into stepping down for each other and I resisted it and said, no, we are going to organise a transparent convention so that whoever looses will have no excuse in the world,” he said.

On why he supported the primary election as against the consensus process, Oyegun said he wanted the party to showcase one of the best presidential primaries in the history of the country.

He described the organisation of the convention as very outstanding that once the party is able build on the momentum that has been reached, victory will be within the reach of the party.

He added that since the party is a proponent of change it was important that the party.

“The success of the convention has propelled the party. We are proponent of change and if was necessary that one of our major activity should convey to the world what we mean by change.”

Addressing the committee, Oyegun said:  “I entrusted that mission to you and your team you have organised what will go into history in this nation, in our political space and beyond as clearly the freest and fairest presidential primary that has ever been witnessed in this nation.”

He said the party would review the voting process at primary and accreditation which were very tedious.

Speaking while laying the report of the APC Convention, Fayemi said although the exercise was not totally smooth- sailing largely hitch-free.

He expressed the hope that the process that led to the selection of the presidential candidate and his running mate would be the one that will eventually propel the party to electoral victory at the 2015 polls.

Oyegun said the committee was able to nip in the bud some issues that led to speculations which would have created problems.

According to him, no single aspirant has complained about the primary, adding that they have written the committee to express their commendation.

Fayemi said the committee has run into deficit but that believed the party would find a way of dealing with it.